|
Saturnday, Sunday, Moonday |
|
|
|
The ancient Greeks inherited the practice of astrology from the Babylonians, but introduced many new features. For example, where the Babylonians tended not to place the major planets in any physically significant order, the Greeks ordinarily listed them on horoscopes like this |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Even though they didn't have a heliocentric model of the solar system, they were still able to deduce the order of the planets, beginning from Saturn as the furthest out and descending to Mercury as the closest in, based on the their periods of their "wanderings" across the night sky. |
|
|
|
On this list the Sun and Moon are placed somewhat arbitrarily at the beginning, since their apparent motions obviously aren't of the same nature as those of the planets. It was also common for the Greeks to place the Moon last, so that it was considered to be even "lower" than Mercury. In addition, the Greeks could distinguish between the "interior" planets (Venus, Mercury) and the "exterior planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars) based on their apparent motions, and they sometimes placed the Sun in the "center" between these groups. This led to the arrangement |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Now, each of the 24 hours (an Egyptian invention) of the day was thought to be "ruled" by one of these 7 planets, and the rulers would cycle around in the arrangement shown above. Thus, if we denote the planets by the symbols T,J,R,S,V,Y,M respectively, and begin the first day with the Sun, we have |
|
|
|
Hour |
|
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 |
|
|
|
1 S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y |
|
2 M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J |
|
3 R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V |
|
4 Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T |
|
5 J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S |
|
6 V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M |
|
7 T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R S V Y M T J R |
|
|
|
After the 7th day the cycle repeats, so the 8th day is the same as the 1st, and so on. (Fortunately, 7 is coprime to 24.) Each day in the cycle was said to be "ruled" overall by the planet that rules the first hour of that day, so the rulers of the seven days were S,M,R,Y,J,V,T, which is to say |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
According to Neugebauer, this is also the arrangement of the planets that was used most often in Hindu astronomy. From this we get the names of the days in the week |
|
|
|
Latin French Saxon English |
|
|
|
Sun Dies Solis Dimanche Sun's day Sunday |
|
Moon Dies Lunae Lundi Moon's day Monday |
|
Mars Dies Martis Mardi Tiw's day Tuesday |
|
Mercury Dies Mercurri Mercredi Woden's day Wednesday |
|
Jupiter Dies Jovis Jeudi Thor's day Thursday |
|
Venus Dies Veneris Vendredi Frigg's day Friday |
|
Saturn Dies Saturni Samedi Seterne's day Saturday |
|
|
|
Wodin (or Odin) was one of the principal gods in Scandinavian and Teutonic mythology, and he seems to have somehow become identified with the Roman Mercurius. Likewise Tiw was identified with Mars. Frigg was the wife of Odin, and likened to Venus. The Germanic god Thor is similar to Jupiter, in the sense of being regarded as the "main" god in most northern European countries. This shows how the common names for our days of the week have been influenced by a wide range of peoples and traditions, including the Babylonians (astrology), Egyptians (24 hour division of the day), Greeks (arrangement of the planets), Romans (Latin names of the gods), and Scandinavian mythology (for the Germanic names). |
|
|
|
Similarly, the names of our moonths propagate ancient historical connections. The summer moonths of July and August commemorate the Roman emperors (dictators and slave owners) Julius and Augustus Caesar, who lived over 2000 years ago in a peninsula in western Europe. In the modern world, with people questioning the honorary use of names such as Washington due to slave ownership, it’s surprising that the use of the names Julius and Augustus are not similarly challenged. During the French Revolution an attempt was made to re-design the calendar, using descriptive names with less historical baggage: |
|
|
|
Vendémiaire Brumaire Frimaire Nivôse Pluviôse Ventôse |
|
Germinal Floréal Prairial Messidor Thermidor Fructidor |
|
|
|
Thus the coup d’état that occurred on November 9th in 1799 is known as the Coup of 18 Brumaire. The Republican calendar was in use (in France and a few other countries) only from 1793 until it was abolished by Napoleon in 1806. The fact that commonplace words like July and August have persisted for thousands of years, even though we rarely if ever cogitate on their original significance, makes it seem plausible that there are other aspects of our language and perhaps even behavioral norms that may have their origins (say) 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, when humans lived in very different circumstances. |
|
|
